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EvoFire · 05-25-2024, 10:18 AM

We played smoke when we were a kid, my parents even bought chocolate cigars for us.

-------

On an unrelated and more serious topic, and also a bit of mind dump so I gather my thoughts.

We thought we were done with the stress of kindergarten entry, but we just had a curve ball thrown at us. We have a spot at Corpus Christi. There's some stipulations involved such as having to attend their bible studies at night once a week. Being a part of the student body means there's a mandatory number of volunteer hours with the school per school year, and there are mandatory extra curricular events. There's a lot of unpack and we are still trying to figure it out.

One of the kids at my son's daycare went to Corpus for kindergarten this year. The little brother is still at daycare and I bumped into the mom at pick up yesterday and had a good chat with her about it. She's been happy about it but noted that some parents find the commitment challenging. Having your kids attend there would mean burning a lot of vacation days for various things.

Pros:
- One of the most highly rated schools academically, they do extremely well and are well regarded
- The mom noted that they do have some great trips - they went to a salmon hatchery this year and the kids helped release the frys.
- The parents are typically going to be more engaged and pay more attention to their children's education and behaviour
- The mom mentioned that they had flash cards for homework, really just reading them - that implies that the school has resources to give 40 kids flash cards (2 kindergarten classes) or that they aren't afraid to draw on parents to buy extra personal supplies/resources vs public school where asking parent's to buy things is kind of taboo
- Closer to home than Champlain Heights
- Uniformed - some parents might think it's annoying, but I like that it takes the guesswork out of dressing the kids for 8 years.
- Volunteering - some parents might have an issue with the time commitment, but we actually think it would be beneficial for our son with his personality, for us to be involved through the school
- There would be no special needs kids - this sounds absolutely terrible in the current PC world, but DDA is a non-profit that works with special needs. The first year at his daycare every kid was "normal", but this year there's two special needs kids in his class. I am super happy for them that they found childcare because most daycares do not accept special needs kids, but it's been disruptive to the class. Despite having extra dedicated caretakers I can tell the teachers are very frazzled and less attentive with the regular kids due to the special needs.

Cons:
- Tuition - we aren't exactly in the best financial place to commit to 8 + 8 years of tuition. They have 3 tiers of tuition, $400, $600, $1000 for their own members, for members of other catholic orgs, and non-believers. We are trying to figure out which tier we would fall into if we are to have to join their bible study. We have two kids, so in 3 years we would be paying for 2 kids tuition per month. Their daycare is currently $10/d so $200/m each.
- Transition - My son is currently at Champlain Child Care with DDA. They run a system that's very open ended, which imo is a good step up to public school. CC seems much more structured and I don't know how well my son is going to transition. He had a hard time transitioning from his old daycare to Champlain because it went from a very structured setting to one that's not.
- The more.... forced is too strong of a word, but more applied academics - my son is super curious and has picked up addition and subtraction, and starting to pick up reading on his own. We have found that forcing him to learn things typically would backfire. Though he's also more receptive of others teaching vs us. This is a bit of a conundrum because we can tell he's bored at the things at daycare and longs for a challenge, yet we feel it's a challenge he needs to pick and choose.
- Extra curricular stuff - because it's Catholic, there are mandatory out of school things you have to be a part of for Easter and Christmas, that I know of.
- Rules and expectations, for the parents more than for the kids. I have no way to know at this point, but I would think CC would be more uptight about parents being on time for pick up and drop off. Somehow I also feel like they'd be frowning upon me dropping off in a visually and aurally loud M3 rather than say, a gray Rav4 or something.

Neutral things:
- We are concerned about fit with the teachers, but really it's not something we can gauge until he actually starts school, so it's an empty concern.
- He doesn't have friends have either schools - we don't know ppl. The kid that already goes to CC, my son didn't play with, plus he's a year ahead anyways.
- Champlain is known to be a good school, very nature oriented which we like, but it seems like CC is not all sit down and read and write either. So I don't know which one is better.

Anyways mind dump complete for now. Processing this last night combined with the little one being awake from 1-4am. I'm kind of exhausted right now.

05-25-2024, 10:18 AM	#1172
EvoFire Los Bastardo owned my ass at least once Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Vancouver Posts: 6,247 Thanked 4,979 Times in 2,307 Posts Failed 75 Times in 49 Posts	We played smoke when we were a kid, my parents even bought chocolate cigars for us. ------- On an unrelated and more serious topic, and also a bit of mind dump so I gather my thoughts. We thought we were done with the stress of kindergarten entry, but we just had a curve ball thrown at us. We have a spot at Corpus Christi. There's some stipulations involved such as having to attend their bible studies at night once a week. Being a part of the student body means there's a mandatory number of volunteer hours with the school per school year, and there are mandatory extra curricular events. There's a lot of unpack and we are still trying to figure it out. One of the kids at my son's daycare went to Corpus for kindergarten this year. The little brother is still at daycare and I bumped into the mom at pick up yesterday and had a good chat with her about it. She's been happy about it but noted that some parents find the commitment challenging. Having your kids attend there would mean burning a lot of vacation days for various things. Pros: - One of the most highly rated schools academically, they do extremely well and are well regarded - The mom noted that they do have some great trips - they went to a salmon hatchery this year and the kids helped release the frys. - The parents are typically going to be more engaged and pay more attention to their children's education and behaviour - The mom mentioned that they had flash cards for homework, really just reading them - that implies that the school has resources to give 40 kids flash cards (2 kindergarten classes) or that they aren't afraid to draw on parents to buy extra personal supplies/resources vs public school where asking parent's to buy things is kind of taboo - Closer to home than Champlain Heights - Uniformed - some parents might think it's annoying, but I like that it takes the guesswork out of dressing the kids for 8 years. - Volunteering - some parents might have an issue with the time commitment, but we actually think it would be beneficial for our son with his personality, for us to be involved through the school - There would be no special needs kids - this sounds absolutely terrible in the current PC world, but DDA is a non-profit that works with special needs. The first year at his daycare every kid was "normal", but this year there's two special needs kids in his class. I am super happy for them that they found childcare because most daycares do not accept special needs kids, but it's been disruptive to the class. Despite having extra dedicated caretakers I can tell the teachers are very frazzled and less attentive with the regular kids due to the special needs. Cons: - Tuition - we aren't exactly in the best financial place to commit to 8 + 8 years of tuition. They have 3 tiers of tuition, $400, $600, $1000 for their own members, for members of other catholic orgs, and non-believers. We are trying to figure out which tier we would fall into if we are to have to join their bible study. We have two kids, so in 3 years we would be paying for 2 kids tuition per month. Their daycare is currently $10/d so $200/m each. - Transition - My son is currently at Champlain Child Care with DDA. They run a system that's very open ended, which imo is a good step up to public school. CC seems much more structured and I don't know how well my son is going to transition. He had a hard time transitioning from his old daycare to Champlain because it went from a very structured setting to one that's not. - The more.... forced is too strong of a word, but more applied academics - my son is super curious and has picked up addition and subtraction, and starting to pick up reading on his own. We have found that forcing him to learn things typically would backfire. Though he's also more receptive of others teaching vs us. This is a bit of a conundrum because we can tell he's bored at the things at daycare and longs for a challenge, yet we feel it's a challenge he needs to pick and choose. - Extra curricular stuff - because it's Catholic, there are mandatory out of school things you have to be a part of for Easter and Christmas, that I know of. - Rules and expectations, for the parents more than for the kids. I have no way to know at this point, but I would think CC would be more uptight about parents being on time for pick up and drop off. Somehow I also feel like they'd be frowning upon me dropping off in a visually and aurally loud M3 rather than say, a gray Rav4 or something. Neutral things: - We are concerned about fit with the teachers, but really it's not something we can gauge until he actually starts school, so it's an empty concern. - He doesn't have friends have either schools - we don't know ppl. The kid that already goes to CC, my son didn't play with, plus he's a year ahead anyways. - Champlain is known to be a good school, very nature oriented which we like, but it seems like CC is not all sit down and read and write either. So I don't know which one is better. Anyways mind dump complete for now. Processing this last night combined with the little one being awake from 1-4am. I'm kind of exhausted right now.